10 INFLUENCES OF MENAFTER10

Hey!

I'm new to GoodReads and thought it might be interesting to introduce myself and my upcoming novel MENAFTER10 (out September 28th and available for preorder now) by sharing ten things that influenced or inspired me in some way prior to deciding to write or while I was in the process of writing the book.

Although I am a writer, and naturally, a reader also, my artistic influences go beyond just literary. See what I mean below.

1.) The Women of Brewster Place by Gloria Naylor

This is, without a doubt, my favorite novel and my biggest influence. I read the book during college, when I was young, naive and newly out. The novel centers around a community of Black women living on a dead end street who are all at the end of the line, in some way in their lives. They all face heavy hardship but through their community, as broken as it may be, they find familiar shoulders to lean on which helps them to endure. That really resonated with me because as a Black gay man, I felt like I was a part of a broken community and I really needed support to navigate my place in this world where everything was so fast and fluid.

There's one chapter in particular called "Etta Mae" that perfectly captures what a hookup feels like for someone that has outgrown hooking up. That chapter and this book pretty much sparked a blueprint of using strangers to tell a story about struggling to find connection. Oh, and did I mention how good Gloria Naylor is with her words? How descriptive she is? How clearly she connects these womens' stories?

2.) Invisible Life by E. Lynn Harris

This was the first gay book I ever read as a child. I basically had to sneak into my uncle's room to read it. Couldn't talk to him about this book of his I was reading or tell him how I felt about it because being gay just wasn't allowed for either of us back then.

E. Lynn Harris set so much precedence as a bestselling Black, gay author in the 90s. When he passed, I felt a void for Black gay fiction being popular, being cool, and honestly, being produced among our community and his death kind of planted the seed in me to use my gift as a creative writer to contribute what I could offer in keeping Black gay fiction alive.


3.) Mama Black Widow by Iceberg Slim

As far as discovering my writing voice--what it sounds like, in terms of language--this book really did wonders for me. Whereas E. Lynn Harris glamorized gay life and everyone was buff, hung and had a successful career, Iceberg Slim took things to the streets and showed the ugly truths that I was seeing in my life experiences. Things were raw. People were grimy. This book was based in real-life gay world and I really needed to read that to one day write it.

4.) Shadow of the Colossus by Fumito Ueda & Team Ico

I'm a huge gamer and fan of video game narratives. This game happens to have one of my favorite narratives ever, despite how much it makes players fill in the blanks. It's a true lesson in minimalism, something I applied in my writing. Since this was my first book, there was so much I wanted to say but applying minimalism taught me to subtract what wasn't essential. Less is more. This game, in its uniquely beautiful and elegiac way, instilled that in me.


5.) "Mascara" by Jazmine Sullivan

Jazmine Sullivan truly does not get the credit she deserves for being a great songwriter. This song really spoke to me when it came out. When I heard it, I heard a testimony of someone who lived in a sex-driven society and had been broken by it before she learned how to adapt to it and find a way to exploit a system that was exploiting women like her.

To me, it was a warning. However, a friend of mine I used to hit the streets with heard it completely different! It was an anthem to him and he used to play it while we pre-gamed for the club. I realized that the lyrics could be interpreted both ways, actually. I wrote to this song a lot and every time, it reminds me to leave room for readers to interpret things in their own way and not force my own assessments into my stories. Life is often open-ended. Until it's not.

6.) Eyes Wide Shut by Stanley Kubrick (based on Traumnovelle by Arthur Schnitzler)

This movie is a work of art, in my opinion, and a great lesson in showing, not telling. I love Kubrick's work but this film, in particular, taught me about unclear resolution, in which stories do not wrap themselves up neatly with a bow or answer all of the questions they ask. If you give the audience/readers enough to work with--interesting characters, engaging conflict, mystery and a unique style--it's often possible for them to come to their own individual conclusion rather than this broad, predictable resolve that explains everything for them. "Make people think again" was Kubrick's motto and I tried to apply it to my own writing.

7.) "Weekend Special" by Brenda Fassie

A constant on my writing playlist! This is a song about a woman who settles for being a part-time lover for this man she only sees on Friday nights. It's a role she's sick of but unsure of how to get out of playing, a narrative I incorporated into MENAFTER10.

8.) "Cranes in the Sky" by Solange

This song is similarly about trying to get out of a certain role or predicament... or feeling. I wrote MENAFTER10 during a really intense period of severe depression. This song was released when I was in the early stages of writing and to me, it represents trying to rid oneself of depression or a certain sense of melancholy but being unable to do so. This song is kind of like a mental health anthem for me and since mental health is a huge theme of MENAFTER10, it often times made the writing just pour out of me and I would just listen to it on loop.

I wasn't accustomed to talking or writing about mental health and this song, I think, helped me in some way embrace the subject matter I was writing: loneliness, depression, emptiness. Writing is very solitary in nature and writing about heavy themes was very difficult considering my own mental health challenges. It's kind of like being in a hostile work environment everyday for three years but yet, you're the only person that works in the office.

I know that must sound incredibly oppressive but this song really soothes and comforts. Sometimes, self-care can be as simple as a song. Thank you, Solange =)


9.) "Just the Lonely Talking Again" by Whitney Houston

I'm a pretty visual writer and writing a book was a very new format for me. I loved how much the format offered in terms of portraying internal conflict but there were times where I missed the audio and visual mediums I was more familiar with. Music, in particular, can do so much for a scene in a TV show or movie.

Whitney Houston, on this song, has a moment where she just snaps and does this little inflection, this little adlib that conveys so much. I wanted to learn how to do that little thing that does so much but with just my words. So, when I was writing, I didn't settle on mediocre words or phrases or description. I revised and revised until it sounded cool when I read it and made me go back and re-read it the same way that Whitney would make me replay this one part, then this other part, and so on, of the song--each time to hear her do magic with her voice, basically. And with time, I came to anticipate reading certain sections of the book back to myself in the same way I anticipated the next run or note Whitney would hit.


10.) Waiting to Exhale by Terry McMillan

Terry McMillan did so much for the Black culture of the 90s with all of her bestsellers and the classic movie adaptations they inspired. The Waiting to Exhale soundtrack, arguably the best original film soundtrack there is, wouldn't even exist if it were not for her. She really made being a novelist look cool. And sometimes, when you're an unpublished Black gay writer working on a novel that publishers consider niche and it's taking you three years to finish said novel, you need to be reminded of what's possible.

I read Waiting to Exhale as I was writing MENAFTER10 and found it so refreshing to read a regarded novel from a time when reading was mainstream. I was reminded of what it must have felt like for Black women of that era to pick up the book and feel represented in a modern way. And I was inspired to keep writing, unpublished as I was, satisfied with the dream of making even a fraction of the impact Ms. McMillan has made.